Donna Buttram Barksdale wrote:
I’m looking for the origins to a song my grandmother used to sing to us, here’s what I remember…
Go to sleep little baby.
The wind’s from the west
and the turkey’s on its nest.
and I can’t get my rest for the baby.
The old sheep lost its lamb
way over in the holler,
the buzzards and butterflies
pecked out its eyes
and the poor little thing cried mammy.
If anyone knows anything about this song, perhaps even where it’s sung, please let us know in the comments below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2012 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, England, English, English Children's Songs, English Lullabies, Languages, Lullabies, Lullabies from Around the World, Questions, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
12 Responses to “Does Anyone the Origins of the Song, "Go to sleep little baby, the wind’s from the west"?”
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September 13th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
That’s odd. The first half looks like a floater that occurs in a lot of songs. I’m most familiar with it from variations on the song that runs “Farewell, my own true love, and fare well for awhile, dadadada, I’ll be back though I go ten thousand mile”. The second shows large similarity to the second verse of “Pretty Little Horses”. I didn’t know that verse floated at all.
March 6th, 2015 at 11:20 pm
Following from childhood memory:
Go to sleep, go to sleep
Go to sleep little baby.
The buzzards and the flies
They pick at his eyes
And the little thing
hollers out mammie.
Go to sleep, go to sleep
Go to sleep little baby.
When you wake
You’ll have some cake.
Go to sleep little baby.
March 12th, 2015 at 4:14 pm
I found the following version in “On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs” (1925) by Dorothy Scarborough, Ola Lee Gulledge:
Go to sleep, little baby,
When you wake
You shall have
All the mulies in the stable.
Buzzards and flies
Picking out its eyes,
Poor little baby crying,
Mamma, mamma!
It seems to be a version of “All the Pretty Little Horses“. Check out these two verses:
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby,
When you wake, you’ll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.
Way down yonder, down in the meadow,
There’s a poor wee little lambie.
The bees and the butterflies pickin’ at its eyes*,
The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.
According to Wikipedia, “The origin of this song is not fully known. Commonly, the song is thought to be of African American origin.” [According to Alan Lomax’s book American Ballads and Folksongs.]
It continues: “One such version is provided in Alan Lomax’s book American Ballads and Folksongs, though he makes no claim of this. ‘Way down yonder, In de medder, There’s a po’ lil lambie, De bees an’ de butterflies, Peckin’ out its eyes, De po’ lil lambie cried, Mammy!’ Another version contains the lyrics ‘Buzzards and flies, Picking out its eyes, Pore little baby crying’. The theory would suggest that the lyrics ‘po’ lil lambie cried, Mammy’ is in reference to the slaves who were often separated from their own families in order to serve their owners. However, this verse is very different from the rest of the lullaby, suggesting that the verse may have been added later or has a different origin than the rest of the song. The verse also appears in the song’Ole Cow’ and older versions of the song ‘Black Sheep, Black Sheep’.”
January 26th, 2016 at 2:30 am
My mama sang this song to me when I was little…bye bye bye little black sheep…way down yonder in the meadow….buzzards and the flies picking out there eyes…poor little thing cried mama mama…..there were other verses that I don’t recall…..I thought my mama made this up…ha…I guess not!
March 7th, 2016 at 10:58 pm
When I was in elementary school in KY, about 50 years ago, we sang a similar song. I remember it was about a lamb and the words “the bees and the butterflies swarming ’round its eyes and the poor little thing is crying mammy. This made me cry, so our music teacher only had us sing it a few times because it upset me so much. Yet I have never forgotten those words.
January 24th, 2017 at 6:05 pm
I remember Dad singing this to me in the rocking chair when I was little about 55 years ago. He died a few months ago and in my grief I was also trying to remember all the words to the song. All I could recal was “the buzzards and the flies a’peckin’ at his eyes and the little sheepie hollerin’ maaaaaamie.” As a Child I just liked being sung to, Dads pretty voice, his attention, and the funny sheep sound, not really thinking much of the visual of the lyrics. Yet each time I would say “sing it again, Daddy,” he’d rare his head back in laughter that I liked a song with such gross lyrics. Then he’d sing it again and again. Probably my first really close memory of times with Dad.
January 25th, 2017 at 12:59 am
What a wonderful memory Julie.
June 21st, 2020 at 2:15 am
My grandmother sang the following:
Go to sleepy little baby, before the boost man gets you
Baa sheep Baa Where’s your lamb
Way down yonder in the valley,
The buzzards and the butterflies pickin out his eyes
Poor little thing cryin Mammy Mammy
Poor little thing cryin Mammy
I sang it to my daughter and she was fine until I got to the part about pickin out his eyes then she would start cryin
April 16th, 2021 at 5:54 pm
My grandfather sang this to me 90 years ago. I remember it as being about a black lamb left behind and I always cried when he sang it to me. I remember the emotion but not the words. All the words I remember are…
The buzzards and the flies
Are pickin’ out his eyes
And the poor little sheep
Is crying Mammy.
August 7th, 2021 at 1:33 pm
“Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Your mama’s gone away and your daddy’s gone stay didn’t leave nobody but the baby,
Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Everybody’s gone in the cotton and the corn didn’t leave nobody but the baby,
Don’t you weep pretty baby
Don’t you weep pretty baby
She’s long gone with her red shoes on gone meet another lovin baby,
Don’t you weep pretty baby
Don’t you weep pretty baby
You and me and the devil makes three don’t need no other lovin baby,
Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Come and lay your bones on the alabaster stones, and be my ever lovin baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby…” Oh Brother Where art thou
February 21st, 2023 at 12:27 am
My granny used to sing
“Way down yonder in the valley
Poor little thing cries momma
The birds and the butterflies
Pecking at it’s eyes
Poor little thing cries momma”
She would sing it in such a soft sad voice and it ALWAYS broke my heart. I would cry and cry and ask why that momma would leave her baby like that but then I’d ask her to sing it again. Lol
March 31st, 2023 at 6:13 pm
My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all sang this version, which I never thought twice about as a child, but once I grew up and had kids, I found a little shocking!
Old black sheepie
Where’s your lamb?
Way down yonder in the valley.
Buzzards and the butterflies
Are pickin’ out its eyes
And the poor little thing cries Mammy